Ernesto Nazareth’s numerous tangos, waltzes, and other piano works relate to traditional Brazilian music as Scott Joplin does to ragtime and John Philip Sousa to marches. To play Nazareth well, you need a natural feeling for how to phrase the dance rhythms and shape the unfailingly memorable melodies with the utmost simplicity. It might be said that Brazilian pianist Iara Behs takes her task a little too seriously at times. In introspective selections like Plagente (Lamenting), Condidéncias (Confidences), and Eponina, she strives to read between the lines with a monumental, weighty approach that saps the music of its inherent charm and grace. More often than not, her little ritards at phrase endings in quicker, samba-like numbers sound calculated and artificial rather than borne out of the music’s natural flow.
In the well-known Odeon, for instance, she invests too much energy fussing over the right hand part, while letting the left hand’s time keeping function go limp. By contrast, Arnaldo Cohen’s BIS recording is steadier and more rhythmically infectious, making its interpretive points through voicing, color, and dynamics. Similarly, Behs’ heavy-gaited Apanhei-te Cavaquinho doesn’t dance along the lines of Cohen’s brisker, light-fingered mastery. Behs convinces most when she plays simply and directly, as in Brejeiro, and it hardly matters that she doesn’t consistently observe Nazareth’s carefully plotted dynamics. This release sports decent sonics and excellent, informative notes by the pianist.
